Longtime Shakespearean actor Angeleno Charles Pasternak last appeared on the stage of Shakespeare Festival St. Louis as Octavius in Antony and Cleopatra. Previously, he also played Hotspur and the Dauphin in Henry IV and V. This year, he's back again as Leontes in The Winter's Tale.

St. Louis Magazine caught up with him to talk acting, St. Louis, and the Bard.

I began training when I was around 10. For better or worse, it’s been the passion of my life ever since.

Shakespeare has always been the focus of my career. While I love working on other playwrights, nothing brings me greater satisfaction than working on the Bard.

Like all of Shakespeare’s late plays, The Winter’s Tale is about love, loss, and redemption. It’s about rebirth in both the personal and mythic senses. The violence of Leontes’ passion costs him everything he loves—but unlike the tragedies, it doesn’t end there.

I absolutely see the Forest Park glen as a unique and necessary setting. The bowl of the hill in which the stage sits, the way that enormous crowd just spreads… It’s perfect.

People will show up at 10 a.m. to lay down blankets for the evening show—and why not?

I work all across the country, but I’ve never seen a more diverse and excited crowd than the one Shakespeare Festival St. Louis gathers each night.

There aren’t many tricks to staying cool beyond wearing as little as acceptable and putting on plenty of sunblock. Luckily, we don’t do matinees in the St. Louis sun.

If a show gets rained out, there are usually two camps: half rush home for much-needed sleep, half rush out to start drinking early. I’m part of the latter. A drink after a show is one of the great joys—but a drink instead of a show isfun, too.

My favorite place to visit is Busch Stadium. I love baseball and the city’s passion. As a Dodgers fan, I haven’t always loved the Cardinals, but I have always respected them.

Of all the regional cities I’ve worked in—and there have been many—St. Louis is my favorite. I love the focus of Shakespeare Festival and its community passion. And, to be fair, I’ve been asked to play some incredible parts… It’s easy to keep coming back. I hope they’ll keep asking me.